MUSIC REVIEW

MUSIC REVIEW; Celebrating a Collaboration in the Best Way

By ALEX ROSS

Published: April 12, 1995

On Sunday afternoon, the violinist Pinchas Zukerman and his regular accompanist, Marc Neikrug, celebrated 25 years of collaboration with a program at Avery Fisher Hall that included Mr. Neikrug's own Sonata Concertante. Mr. Zukerman made a seamless midrecital switch from violin to viola, demonstrating on both instruments some characteristically decisive interpretive ideas.

Like many of Mr. Neikrug's works, the Sonata Concertante inhabits the world of Berg. The first movement is an interesting amalgam of march and scherzo elements, unified by fierce announcements of a single tone in sets of three. Next comes a dark-hued blues piece, then a meditative slow movement, and a rhythmically dense finale. The idiom is generally atonal, although some ambiguous tonal references recall the method of the Berg Piano Sonata. I admired the composer's craft but struggled to identify an individual take on a familiar language. Mr. Zukerman dug into his difficult violin line with unstinting commitment.

He began his program with Mozart's Sonata in D (K. 306), effectively seizing hold of the music with Romantic insistence. His vehement approach also worked well with Brahms's youthful scherzo movement in C minor, part of the collaborative "F-A-E" Sonata. But I think he pressed a little too hard at the outset of Brahms's valedictory Sonata in F minor, the first of the two clarinet sonatas adapted for viola. The tempo was too slow, the melancholy flow of the music disrupted by uneven phrasings. Remaining movements showed a generous lyrical spirit, bringing the recital to an impressively understated close.

Mr. Neikrug's accompaniments were of one mind with Mr. Zukerman's probing solos. In his own sonata he produced near-symphonic textures, suggesting that the work might be able to assume an orchestral guise.